The One That Got Away: A Novel

by Bethany Chase

Perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jennifer Weiner, this bright, funny debut from a fresh voice in fiction offers a delicious take on love, family, and what it means to build a home of one’s own.

Sarina Mahler thinks she has her life all nailed down: a growing architecture practice in Austin, Texas, and an any-day-now proposal from her loving boyfriend, Noah. She’s well on her way to having the family she’s hoped for since her mother’s death ten years ago. But with Noah on a temporary assignment abroad and retired Olympic swimmer—and former flame—Eamon Roy back in town asking her to renovate his new fixer-upper, Sarina’s life takes an unexpected turn. Eamon proves to be Sarina’s dream client, someone who instinctively trusts every one of her choices—and Sarina is reminded of all the reasons she was first drawn to him back in the day. Suddenly her carefully planned future with Noah seems a little less than perfect. And when tragedy strikes, Sarina is left reeling. With her world completely upended, she is forced to question what she truly wants in life—and in love.

Full of both humor and heartbreak, The One That Got Away is the story of one woman’s discovery that, sometimes, life is what happens when you leave the blueprints behind.

Praise for The One That Got Away

“A warm, witty, and wise novel, The One That Got Away announces the arrival of a great new voice in fiction.”—Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The One and Only

“Love can be complicated, and in The One That Got Away, Bethany Chase captures every nuanced beat of a conflicted heart. An authentic and warm voice infuses this story of humor, heartbreak, and home. While Sarina finds her way, we as readers might also find a way back to our own unique lives.”—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of And Then I Found You

“This perfectly paced story is full of fresh, engaging characters, but Chase’s greatest accomplishment is Sarina Mahler. Sarina is so human, her inner world such a compelling mix of guarded and open-hearted, confident and faltering, that—through every loss, every funny moment, every blazing triumph—I felt completely with her and grateful to be there.”—Marisa de los Santos, New York Times bestselling author of Falling Together

“[A] sparkling debut [that] packs serious emotional punches . . . This utterly enjoyable romance will have readers swooning, sobbing, and eagerly anticipating Chase’s next book.”—Kirkus Reviews

• ISBN10: 0804179425
• ISBN13: 9780804179423
• Publish Date: 31 March 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Ballantine Books Inc.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780804179423

Reviews

[Bianca]

Every woman has one. That name you Google at two o’clock in the morning. That intoxicating connection that somehow never solidified into anything real; that particular memory you still visit every now and then, for that guaranteed hit of pure, sugar-packed dopamine. It’s that story that starts with 'There was this one time' and ends, reluctantly, with 'but I guess…'

[Leah]

If you ever ask me the question who my favourite author is, I’ll tell you Sophie Kinsella. But, if you ask me what my favourite book is, I’ll tell you Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. It’s one of the only novels about cheating that I can stand (and I say this in every review I write that blurs the lines in regards to cheating). It’s a hard balance to get right, so when I heard about The One That Got Away by Bethany Chase, not only did Emily Giffin’s novel Love The One You’re With spring to mind, but I was also DESPERATE to read it, because there aren’t many authors like Emily Giffin. Some have tried, but none even come close to her greatness. Sometimes you just know you’re going to love a book before you’ve finished the first page, and I knew as soon as I started that The One That Got Away was a book you must NOT miss this year.

I’ve had a bit of a drought with regards to good Chick Lit books. They’re few and far between these days, as a lot of them peddle the same stuff time and time again so I’ve been mixing up my genres and, despite the fact I’ve read 17 books so far in 2015, this is my first five-star Chick Lit read (or Women’s Fiction, I literally don’t care what name you use!) and comes at a welcome time when I barely even started my last book before giving up.

The great thing about the novel is it will likely have a lot of people wondering about their ones who got away (or didn’t get away, the lucky ducks) and Sarina is one of the most refreshing people to ever tell a story. I loved her. I loved her honesty, I loved that she was all girl-power and wanting to make her own way in the world, and I loved that she didn’t actually cheat on Noah. That’s ALWAYS my bug bear in these novels, where relationships start from cheating and then you’re always on edge for ever more, because you just can’t base a relationship on cheating (and only Something Borrowed has changed my mind on that, no other book has managed it). I loved that for a long time Sarina was loyal to Noah – at the end of the day, it would have been so easy to just forget Noah and jump in to bed with Eamon. A guy who digs you and is in your own state vs a guy who digs you all the way from Argentina? No contest, but Sarina was different.

Sarina and Eamon are on a knife-edge the whole novel. We know how Sarina feels, but it takes ages before we see how Eamon feels, and I liked their banter. It wasn’t always clean (in regards to Noah, I mean) but it toed the line enough that I was okay with it. I loved Eamon. I loved that he was so willing to let Sarina, a fantastic architect (Ted Mosby would have loved her!) help with his house re-build on his return to Austin. It was so cool to see how much Eamon appreciated and “got” Sarina’s plans for his house. Heck, it was just so cool to see Sarina being an architect. That’s not what you see every day, but like Eamon, I totally got her vision. I loved how she appreciated buildings and put so much effort in to her work and it was a really fun to get a glimpse in to Sarina’s work life. What made Sarina’s dream of being an architect even more amazing was John, her step-dad. I love how he instilled so much in to her, and inspired her to become an architect and how John would get SO excited to see Sarina’s work and the plans for Eamon’s house etc.

The One That Got Away was pretty much a pitch-perfect novel, I loved the triangle-that-wasn’t-really-a-triangle, I loved Sarina’s relationships with everyone in her life most especially John, who was such a special character. Sarina had such great friends, too! Danny and Nicole were amazing friends. Probably my only fly in the ointment was View Spoiler » I suspect though that that spoiler is just me being prim and proper. This novel made me laugh, it made me cry, and gave me that wonderful feeling in my stomach when two characters just finally do what you’ve been wanting them to do for ages. Sigh, I miss that feeling, it’s a rarity these days. The One That Got Away is a must read, I swear. And I am SO excited that the next book is Colin’s story. The Roy family are the Maddoxes of the Chick Lit world… and I can’t wait for the next installment!